The SORC is a weekend celebration of speed, competition, Americana and hospitality built around a mile-long top-speed run and a 55-mile road rally that aims to give back to the communities it surrounds.

Encouraged and supported by the locals of Arnold and the surrounding Custer County, participants have dubbed it the “most family-friendly open-road race.”

In 1978, Joe Shown, now vice president of the SORC, drove the roads of Arnold, and they reminded him of Formula One great Jim Clark, who spoke of honing his skills on two-lane blacktop roads.

It wasn't until 2000, when Shown bought his first Chevrolet Corvette and returned to the roads of Arnold, that the idea of a rally began to germinate.

“I was tickled pink,” Shown said of the drive. “I just loved it and thought, if we closed this road, we could make a road course out of this thing.”

After sharing his idea with an Arnold business owner, Shown consulted with attorneys about the possible legality of a “no-speed-limit” event on the road. The attorneys concluded that “the county has the authority to close the road; therefore, speed limits would no longer apply.”

Those same attorneys added that they didn't want to be involved, claiming that they wouldn't “touch the event with a 10-foot pole.”

After talking to and gaining advice from the Silver State Classic Challenge organizers, a similar event taking place in Nevada, Shown went to the county board to raise interest in his proposal.

“We finally were able to gain support,” said Shown. “County Commissioner Don Olson became a believer in the event, and with his help and a lot of others from in town, we got it moving.”

Olson, president of the SORC, said he remembers when Shown approached him with the idea.

“[Shown] called me one night and told me the idea,” said Olson. “He asked about the idea of getting a county road closed. I told him he had a better chance of having hell freeze over. But we'd put [him] on the agenda, and we went from there.”

At the meeting, two board members threw a fit, according to Olson, but one sage offered his experience from years past.

“An older gentlemen told us about when he was younger. They'd shut down a county road to drag-race. So it was possible. So then, I started digging around, looking at similar events, and saw the benefits that came, and they were surprising.”

After convincing landowners along the proposed road—according to Shown, the most formidable challenge the rally faced—the permit for the first event was issued.

“Once we got the approval, it was sort of chaos,” said Olson. “You've got a bunch of farmers out here trying to run an event. So a close friend of the event, Gary Patterson, vice president of operations and test driver at Shelby American Inc. in Las Vegas, came out and helped sort things out and get us on track.”

The inaugural Sandhills Open Road Challenge was held in 2001, with 34 cars participating. The following year saw 54 cars, then 75 in 2003, with the first sellout in 2004 with more than 100 cars participating. The SORC has sold out every year since.

Fast-forward to 2012, and the SORC's popularity has grown so much that organizers are forced to turn down prospective participants because of capacity limits.

“Sadly, we have to turn people away,” said Shown. “We can run the event at 120 cars, no problem, but more than that, and the day gets to be really long for our volunteers and participants.”

While there are similar events around the country—the Silver State Classic Challenge and the Texas Mile, for example—what makes the SORC different enough that people are paying as much as $10,500 for a guaranteed spot with a lifetime number?

“It's really something. One thing that makes it so unique is the people. If you're in Arnold, it's all about the people,” said Shown, the lifetime No. 1 holder.